Bregje Wijsenbeek
TAMARA NAIDOO
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Programme Manager, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung,
Johannesburg
Towards peaceful and inclusive societies:
The UN 2030 Agenda’s Goal 16 and gender,
peace and security
Naidoo’s presentation focused on gender
and peacebuilding in the context of the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development, the global
development framework with goals and targets
covering economic, social development and
environmental protection. For Naidoo, the UN
2030 Agenda is one of the most progressive
international commitments to eradicating
poverty in its seeking to address poverty
through a multitude of intersectional issues.
Using the 2030 Agenda’s intersectionality as
a tool to examine conventional peacebuilding
efforts, Naidoo spoke about how it exposes
the extent to which patriarchal gender norms
are institutionalised and continue to reproduce
narrowly defined, unjust programmes and
insecurity, despite the good intentions of the
peacebuilders. For Naidoo, with the key resources
directed to high-level state-building and military
strength, gender-based violence remains endemic,
yet secondary. By linking Goal 5 (gender issues)
and Goal 16 (conflict and gender violence),
Naidoo examined the ways in which conflict
exacerbates gender inequality and the double
burden of women in the productive and
reproductive function within times of conflict.
Naidoo highlighted several key opportunities in
streamlining peacebuilding goals to contribute
to a multi-pronged approach able to protect
and promote the rights of women and empower
women and their families through measures of
accountability, which include aid effectiveness,
dialogue and effective financing. For Naidoo, the
2030 Agenda potentiates the mix of state and
non-state actors in peacebuilding to re-align
energy and resources
Ultimately, for Naidoo, there is a need to rethink
conventional peacebuilding strategies that omit
gendered analysis. Naidoo notes, though, that
a gendered analysis is not a straightforward task.
She attributes this to the change in beliefs held
by what she terms ‘millennial feminists’ who, she
argues, have removed the binary asks of traditional
feminists, and assert a full plate of rights in the
gendered analysis of peacebuilding. Environmental,
developmental, socio-economic and democratic
interests are all relevant in the upliftment of women.
In conclusion, Naidoo noted that, while UN normsetting activities like the 2030 Agenda are useful
for inspiring common action, the UN and related
bodies can perpetuate the fixation with state-level
peacebuilding. To address gender-based violence
and the host of ills related to it, a sustainable peace
is dependent upon ‘bottom-up nation-building
processes’.
PANEL 1: Recent developments in international accountability for conflict-related sexual violence / 5
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